Wisdom sometimes cames with age

Jails in America now house now house 10 time more mental health patients than state hospitals according to this article.

Way back when Raygun was Governor of California he emptied the mental hospitals. I know I was there and saw the instant homeless population. At first one batch of mental patients from the local hospital where put in off campus housing near San Jose State University. That didn’t last long. Many crazy people end up in state hospitals because they won’t or don’t remember to take their meds. Something like 25% of crazy people are unable to recognize the fact that they are mentally ill. This is sort of like a person with a broken arm who thinks that s/he is normal – that broken arms are normal. In the U.S. it is estimated that about 50% of the population with mental illness are untreated/unmedicated. The reasons for non medication is because some people can’t remember to take their meds or the can’t afford their meds or they have an undiagnosed but treatable (or untreatable) mental illness.

Is jail any place for mental patients? Are jails equipped and staffed and designed to treat mentally disabled human being? In most jails mental patients are locked away with little or no treatment – except perhaps for the daily meds tossed in their cells. Is America a civilized country? When we look at how mental illness awareness among the majority is still back in the 19th century – it seems like the USA has a long way to go before it reaches the 21st century.